Welcome to Craigslist Crapshoot, our weekly dive into the deep end of the pool filled with the automotive world’s most horrible road warriors – that you could potentially buy. This week, I’m sending you on a hunt for a specific sort of Craigslist Crap – that being convertibles. After all, it is the depth of winter.

What I want you to find are the worst convertibles out there that one might buy and drive – remember the rules, they have to be running and licensable for the road. Don’t feel constrained by factory drop tops, backyard Sawzall efforts work here too, and are probably the worst, er best. Also, check out last week’s biggest crap pile after the jump.

Annnnnnd, last week you all came up with a slew of truly terrible cars and trucks that someone somewhere thought someone else might actually trade for good money. It was a true carpet bombing of crap. But there can be only one king of crap, and from last week’s offerings, 5keptic wears that crown. Here’s why-

This is partially about the ad more than the car itself – which is bad, but I have confidence will be surpassed. Anyway, for most of the ad, the seller is going on about the car's winter prowess. It has several block heaters, which you don't need because it starts in -40, and it's so amazing in winter. Then here's the kicker: "Missing rear window."

I am unilaterally awarding Pwned88 second place becausegoddamnit this is hilarious.
"*for people asking why it's wisconsin plated, my step brother in law drove it here 17 years ago and it was basically dead when he got here. i gave him 16$(back then it covered a greyhound ticket) and said i'd work on it. he died while attempting to repair a bbq and simultaneously smoking a cig and since then the cars been left with me. i did my best to revive it, but my stepsister wants the car gone because its the last thing that reminds her of his determination.*"
I don't know anything about beer, so here's something else horrible and awesome:
[youtube bWbYwOSPjH8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWbYwOSPjH8 youtube]

Scandinavian Flick

Everything on CL is pretty awesome or meh right now… This is about the worst I can do at the moment, and really, it's pretty tame by crapshoot standards.

Man, I thought I was the only one! Having seen many of these in person (ghettotown, NM), I can say that the G's take their shit seriously. Well, did, anyway. Before Fast and Furious.

Scandinavian Flick

Part of me actually kinda misses the lowrider age. I have a soft spot for the sheer absurdity and effort that went into it. Living in the era of the slammed makes it kinda disappointing to miss out on the airborne wire wheels, wild glitter paint, and polished and gold plated pumps and air lines…

I remember watching those bounce contests… When I turn on The Chronic 2001, it brings back surprisingly fond memories.

Scandinavian Flick

Lowrider shows were the best. There were unifying themes and ideas, but everyone had their own take on it. I had no idea of the technical details of what I was looking at, but they all seemed like giant Tonka toys to me. I also remember flipping through the latest Lowrider magazine, fantasizing about triple gold wire wheels.

Besides, the thong-clad women were the most I'd ever seen of the female form at the time. The kids these days, with their internet, don't know how easy they have it…

"Should we get the snow off the car before we put it on Craigslist?"
"Heck no it will hide the scratches this way"
"Ok now when you take the picture stand on the only shoveled part under the flood light and use your iPhone 3GS"

Two things. First its inspected until Feb 2013. So enjoy your two weeks with it. Second its wired for more beat in the truck. Do many people grow beats in their trunk? I guess they match the paint color.

They definatly tried to ruin a burban…. but it is repairable. it was somwhere on the inter webs a few months back. I would buy it and put it back to right and make back some of the cost selling the bed and trailer axels off. or cut it off and put a tongue on it add a frame and hydraulic cylinder and make it a dump trailer.

I was gonna say that's a Plymouth in any case, but given the location this may be a Canadian built car; they were so fond of slapping the Dodge name on cars that were mostly Plymouth.

sporty88au

Looks like they got both the year and make wrong. Its a 1964 Plymouth Valiant convertible. Definitely a US model – the Canadian model was based on a Dodge Dart shell, so had a longer wheelbase and the Dodge rear (different tail lights).

At that price, assuming the top frame is intact and the shell is not too far gone, it might even be worth restoring. It looks like all the chrome is there and in good condition. At worst, it would make a really good parts donor. It's a pity it's not a '65 – I'd be really interested in a few of the parts if it was.

Our piano tuner father son pair keep buying and driving used Sebring convertibles. It's so impractical, especially in winter, with the back and trunk just overflowing with tools and piano parts, that it makes me happy every time I pay them.

wolfie

Yes it is low grade crap. But a rust free, running and driving convertible for under 5 grand. Nice Price

ptschett

Heck, I'd drive that.

FuzzyPlushroom

My grandparents own one of those.

I drove it once.

The dashboard is fake faux carbon fiber. It wants to be fake. Seriously. And the instrument panel is three shades of grey, white, yellow, and red.

Though to be honest, if the body is decent, and the engine, too, then for $3500 it's not a real bad buy. Sell the wheels and put some stock rims and BFG All Terrains on, and you'll net a few bucks, and sell all the speakers, get a set of door panels from LMC, come out a few bucks ahead there, too, and you've got a decent 88 Blazer for $3,000.

Seems like a decent truck and I would be interested if it was original. Im a huge k-5 fan but the new panels if not done really really well would start rotting as soon as it hit this province. These did not stand up well to road salt and usually needed new inner and outer quarters and inner and outer rockers in ten or less years if not well undercoated when new and every year afterwards.

I Think Not

This man is a liar! It will NEVER be a reliable daily driver. I've tried. I pray every morning before I turn the key that it will start. Sometimes, my prayer goes unanswered.

But I want his interior for my '80 Rabbit Convertible. My seats are shit and my dash is cracked to hell and back. Oddly, my rear bumper is folded in the same way, but not as far, and with none of the accompanying body damage. That must just be how they fold when they're hit.

Well doesn't it matter if its a Pennsylvanian or German Rabbit? The German ones were reliable where the PA ones weren't?

I Think Not

All 'verts were built in Germany by Karmann, even after the rest of the production moved to PA. So, if it's true that German-built should be more reliable, my car defies that!

See the little badge behind my front wheel arch? That's the Karmann badge. The white one for sale looks to have it, too. The convertible shared only the front clip with the rest of the lineup, and the unibody was so substantially different that when I have ordered chassis parts, I have to specify that I am ordering for a convertible.

Unfortunately, I'd probably have less trouble with the thing if it were carbureted instead of the finicky Bosch K-jetronic mechanical fuel injection, but that's just part of its character, right?

Especially the Blach and Purple Interior. The descriptor "Blach" certainly captures the interior. I see a bright future for this guy at Mansory. Very bright. As in: multiple, clashing neon tints in the same interior design bright.

Vairship

Now don't go harping on the guy just because he misspelled Bleach and Purple!

danleym

Thanks for the fix- I figured it out and deleted the comment, but you were apparently too quick for me.

$1,195 1994 Cutlass Supreme Convertible
* Runs and Drives Great
* Hauls Queen Beds Like A Champ
* Steering Pump Makes Whining Sound
* Windshield Is Cracked
* Convertible Top Works, Not In The Best Condition Though
* Leaks Oil
* Interior Dash Lights Work Sometimes
* Drivers Side Door Does Not Open
* Trunk Gets Water In It When It Rains <<yeah, that's not a problem around Seattle.http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/3518713196….

I hope all of their other listings also include the keyword "furnitureding".

I Think Not

This guy has missed a marketing opportunity:

"Comes complete with queen Serta Sleepmaster to exercise all the tail you'll grab with this ride!"

After all this crap I'd like to wrap it up with something cool again, as so many of you have done before me here. This Volvo TGB1111 in "tank killer" equipment is actually registered as a convertible and it is in true military style hardly used. Nice toy!

Okay, this lot is seriously kinda tempting. A '67 Impala two-door hardtop and a '65 Impala four-door hardtop parts car (Personally, I'd flip the '67 and keep the '65.) for $1400. Or $1800. Either way, if you look at it as buying by the pound or foot, he's practically giving 'em away!

Assuming it wasn't manually flagged, I have to wonder whether there's some sort of automatic filter that is less tolerant of posts from people without IntenseDebate accounts. Posts with links to craigslist ads and so forth would seem to be a natural target. If so, that could be awkward for this series.

Devin

I think it's an autoflag if you've got too many links and no ID account – he says he's got four.

I can understand why they do it, but it would be super annoying for people with no accounts.

Sjalabais

<s>Would</s>…is! I got myself an intensedebate-account relatively fast after I discovered this cool blog and crowd. But it turned out to be intenselyannoying, wasn't just log-in-and-forgot-about-it, so I don' t bother. Maybe I should.

Come to think about it, four offerings makes eight URLs (link + photo for each). Like I'm trying to sell Viagra to Jesus making 8000$ dollar a month sitting on the lap of a Nigerian prince and so forth.

Scandinavian Flick

Yours won't stay logged in? I haven't had a problem with that on my home computer or my phone…

Apologies, as I know Intensedebate is kind of a pain in the ass…seemingly for specific people. Looking at the spam queue, it seems to dislike you. I can say that it seems they've made a number of invisible improvements, as it seems to be broken less now than a year ago.

I whitelisted this username via wordpress.com, but it doesn't exist in Intensedebate.

If you drop me an email at mad_science@hooniverse.com with your IntenseDebate username, I can be sure to add that, so no more spam issues.

Sjalabais

Thanks for fixing the post above and your offer for help! I'll try to find the Id. info from a PC later. 🙂

Sjalabais

Ok, now I remember. I tried to register at Intensedebate, ended up with WordPress. When I log in here after pressing "reply", I get redirected to intensedebate.com, where I have to log in once more, and than I end up in my intensedebate.com-settings. Not on this page, where I intend to comment – so I have to go back to the Hooniverse all by myself. Can't change my "Gravatar" – "close this window if it doesn't close by itself" – and everything feels wrong. Who made this? Monkeys?

That's why I didn't bother to log in. 🙂 But I will remember it when I intend to post lots of URLs.

Edit: Sorry for a lot of boring technical stuff, but with Opera Mini on Android I can't log in to WordPress/Intensedebate at all.

Minor tech complaint here for the Hoons-in-Chief: I can understand collapsing all the replies when a post accumulates 100 comments, but it really sucks when I open the replies to a comment more than halfway or so down the list, and the page automatically scrolls way back up above where I want to be. Is there a reasonable workaround to this? How about a button to open all replies at once? That would solve for the previous complaint. Aside from this, I'm quite pleased with the value for my dollar that I see here daily!

I've asked the folks at IntenseDebate comments (IDC) about this, because I share your sentiments exactly.

…I have no good news to tell you. As best I can tell, they're not really doing any real changes/upgrades to IDC. It seems a little less buggy than, say 18 months ago, but I asked them for the features you're talking about back in 2010. They said "yeah…that's a good idea…thanks for the input". 3+ years into things, I'm reluctant to nuke this commenting system in favor of what might be a better option (e.g.: Disqus).

Though, I don't have that funky scrolling thing you're talking about (I'm using Chrome if that helps).

Bummer, although I can certainly understand not wanting to go through installing a new commenting system.

Chrome is my primary browser.

Just dusted off Firefox & tried it there – hey, no weird up-scrolling… guess I'll have to visit the 'verse via FF.

ETA: Apparently the unwanted-scrolling thing was my own fault – the result of the Chrome extension "DoNotTrackMe".

Is there a place where the little people can pester IDC about adding functionality like an "expand all comments" button? I imagine we could muster a few hundred complaints/requests regarding that, at the very least.

As an admittedly less than ideal alternative, is it possible to raise the threshold at which the comments become collapsed? I see the value in collapsing them at some point but in most cases I'd rather scroll through a longer list than deal with the current method of selective expansion.

Good thought.The options are 50 or 100.:(I used to say IDC is like an Alfa Romeo b/c it's beautiful and awesome…when it's working. It got a lot less buggy over time, so now it's more like an Apple product: beautiful and easy to use…as long as you want to use it exactly like they intend. “Can I change this in some minor logical extension of what you already do?””Nope.”